Felicity Palmer, Jill Gomez, John Whitfield - Britten: Phaedra; Les Illuminations; Five French Folksong (1995)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 178 Mb | Total time: 50:28 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # CDM 5 65114 2 | Recorded: 1986
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 178 Mb | Total time: 50:28 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # CDM 5 65114 2 | Recorded: 1986
Britten’s dramatic cantata Phaedra is the resonant centre of this new release in EMI’s excellent British Composers series. The steely gleam at the core of Felicity Palmer’s mezzo-soprano, and the hard white light of the Endymion’s outstanding ensemble playing make for a fierce kindling of Britten’s music with Robert Lowell’s words at one exceptional moment in the work’s performing history. John Whitfield’s direction ensures that the Five French Folksongs are nicely poised between raw simplicity and elegant sophistication, while the Endymion’s incisive playing warms to the sensuousness of Jill Gomez’s Les Illuminations.